MANAGEMENT OF STRESS: USE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN MANAGING STRESS WITHINTHE LOWER RANK SOLDIERS IN A MILITARY ORGANIZATION

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1 MANAGEMENT OF STRESS: USE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN MANAGING STRESS WITHINTHE LOWER RANK SOLDIERS IN A MILITARY ORGANIZATION A Thesis Submitted to College of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree Master of Human Resource Universiti Utara Malaysia By KAMARULZAMAN LAMIN (800495)

2 PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the postgraduate degree of Master of Human Resources from the Universiti Utara Malaysia, I agree that the Universiti s library may take it freely available for inspection. I further agree that the permission for copying of this is in a manner, in whole or part, for scholarly purpose may be granted by my superior or in his absence, by the Dean of the College of Business. It is understood that any copy or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the Universiti Utara Malaysia for any scholarly use which may be made of any material from my thesis. Request for permission to copy or make other use of material in this thesis in whole or in part should be addressed to: Dean (Research and Innovation Office) College of Business Universiti Utara Malaysia UUM Sintok Kedah Darul Aman MALAYSIA i

3 ABSTRACT Stress in workplace is not a new phenomenon for it is known to have a negative impact upon the business world as well as to the military organization. Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, constraint or demand related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important. There are many causes of stress in which few include low morale, sickness and diseases, personal problem, workload, lack of job satisfaction, poor working environment, leadership and change of technology. This thesis studied and researched was conducted to determine the relation of stress having the independent variables, job satisfaction, working environment and utilization of technology (HRIS). It is desired that this research would provide a positive input in the process of management of stress of the lower rank soldiers, especially to the Commanding Officer and officers as leaders in the military organization. ii

4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In the name of ALLAH the almighty, I praise him and felt very grateful to him for having showed me devine in completing this thesis successfully. The writing of this thesis started during the second semester of 2008/2009 at Universiti Utara Malaysia in fulfillment of Master of Human Resource program. Many people are kind enough to provide me assistance in achieving an excellent results in the process for the research to be in reality. My sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Shahmir Abdullah for his valuable supervision and guidance during the whole process of the thesis writing. I would also like to extend my gratitude and thankful to my colleague, Lt Colonel Rahim Omar, the Commanding Officer, 72 Battalion KP, who had given a full cooperation towards me in administering the research questionnaires within his merry men in the military camp. Finally I take this opportunity to express my love and thankful to my wife Suraya and children who have indirectly supported me in my research and also to those many friends who had helped in the making of this thesis complete. Kamarulzaman Lamin May 2009

5 TABLE OF CONTENT PERMISION TO USE ABSTRACT AKNOWLEDGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENT I II III IV CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.0 INTRODUCTION THE RESEARCH PROBLEM THE RESEARCH QUESTION THE PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH SIGNIFICANT OF THE RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION OF THE RESEARCH SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH STRUCTURE OF THE RESEARCH 9 IV

6 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW AN INDIVIDUAL STRESS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM RESOURCES HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM SECURITY AND PRIVACY COMPONENT OF INFORMATION DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF INFORMATION SYSTEM CHARACTERISTIC OF GOOD INFORMATION THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK JOB SATISFACTION WORKING ENVIRONMENT GENDER PREVENTION TOOLSFOR STRESS 32 CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY 3.0 INTRODUCTION 33 V

7 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN POPULATION AND SAMPLE SAMPLING DESIGN VARIABLES INSTRUMENT DESIGN DATA COLLECTION DATA ANALYSIS SUMMARY 38 CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS AND FINDINGS 4.0 INTRODUCTION PROFILE RESPONDENT SURVEY RESPONSES RESPONDENT BACKGROUND RESPONDENT S BACKGROUND RESPONDENT S AGE GROUP RESPONDENT S RACE/ETHNIC RESPONDENT S YER OF SERVICE RESPONDENT ACCORDING TO MARITAL STATUS RESPONDENT S EDUCATION LEVEL 43 VI

8 4.4 RELIABILITY ANALYSIS DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS CORRELATION ANALYSIS REGRESSION SUMMARY HYPOTHESIS DISCUSSION 50 CHAPTER FIVE RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION 5.0 RECOMMENDATION CONCLUSION 53 APPENDIXES RESEARCH QUESTIONAIRES STATISTIC PACKAGE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE VII

9 MANAGEMENT OF STRESS: USE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN MANAGING STRESS WITHIN THE LOWER RANK SOLDIERS IN A MILITARY ORGANIZATION CHAPTER INTRODUCTION Stress in the military organization can cause many effects to soldier s mood, productivity, attitudes and relationships between soldiers and the organization as well as between themselves. Stress can result in significant productivity losses, low performance and administrative expenditures. Many factors happen to be the causes of soldiers stress. Hence, stress has become a major problem happening in the workplace. Stress in the military is not widely researched even though the problem is occurring in most organizations. Considerable research on this topic has concerned the links between stress from work and work related attitudes such as organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Stress and other withdrawal behaviors reflect invisible attitudes such as job dissatisfaction, low level of organizational commitment, or an intention to quit. According to this view, a soldier who is stressed consciously or unconsciously expressing negative attachment to the organization. Furthermore, for a lowly committed or dissatisfied soldier, stress can have a negative role. It may provide him or her opportunity to avoid the negative emotions associated with work. On the other hand, soldiers who are highly satisfied with their jobs or strongly committed to the organization will avoid withdrawal behaviors and maintain continued attachment to perform work. 1

10 The contents of the thesis is for internal user only

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